The Midland and South Western Junction Railway
Original plans for railways in the Marlborough area had focused on a scheme for a north-south line to link Swindon with Andover, passing through Marlborough. Though the GWR branch line got to Marlborough first, the north-south plans were revived with an Act in 1873, and the Swindon Marlborough and Andover Railway was built in two halves. The northern section, from Swindon Town south to Marlborough, was opened in July 1881; the southern section, from Andover Junction north to Grafton and Burbage, opened the following year, 1882.
The new Marlborough station opened as a terminus just to the east of the existing GWR station. It had a station building on the up platform (towards Swindon) with a huge canopy. There was a goods yard behind the up platform to the north west of the passenger station with a large goods shed.
Having built its lines from the north and the south, the financially strapped SM&AR then found that it could not join them, being unable to afford to persuade landowners to sell their property to build the missing link. Instead, it built a short link within Marlborough to the GWR branch line just south of Marlborough GWR station and another link from the GWR's Berks and Hants Extension Railway just east of Savernake station southwards to Grafton and Burbage station. From February 1883, SM&AR through trains used the GWR Marlborough branch and a short section of the B&HER main line, including Savernake station. A condition of the GWR lease was that passengers wanting to change at Savernake to other GWR services had to use the GWR trains from Marlborough.
In 1884, the SM&AR combined with the Swindon and Cheltenham Extension Railway, which ran northwards from Swindon Town, first to Cirencester and then, from 1891, into Cheltenham Lansdown. The combined line was called the Midland and South Western Junction Railway (M&SWJR) and with its links northwards from Cheltenham to the Midlands and southwards from Andover over the Sprat and Winkle Line to the south coast ports it became a true through line.
Read more about this topic: Marlborough Railway Stations
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